A Devotion from Charles Spurgeon

The grace of God … teaches us … to live … upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
—Titus 2:11–13

We live in an interval between two appearings of the Lord. We are divided from the past by the words Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Calvary. All the rest of time is before Christ, and the chief landmark in all time to us is the wondrous life of him who is the light of the world.

We look forward to a second appearing—of glory rather than of grace. Our Lord, in the fullness of time, will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of archangel, with the trumpet of God. This is the terminus of the present age. We look from anno the Domini, in which he came the first time, to that greater anno Domini, or year of our Lord, in which he will come a second time in all the splendor of his power to reign in righteousness and break the powers of evil.

Behind us is our trust; before us is our hope. Behind us is the Son of God in humiliation; before us is the great God our Savior in his glory.

We are living between the two beacons of the divine appearings. We have everything to hope for in the last appearing, as we have everything to trust to in the first appearing. We wait with patient hope throughout that weary interval. Paul calls it “this present age.” This marks its fleeting nature. It is present now, but it will not be present long. We look to the things that are not seen and not present as being real and eternal. We traverse an enemy’s country—there is no rest for us by the way.

Already I have given you the best argument for a holy life. If before you blazes the splendor of the Second Advent and behind you burns the everlasting light of the Redeemer’s first appearing, what manner of people ought you to be! If indeed, you are but journeying through this present world, do not permit your hearts to be defiled with its sins.

Put on therefore the “armor of light” (Rom. 13:12). What a grand expression! Helmet of light, breastplate of light, shoes of light—everything of light. What a knight must one be who is clad in light! Like a wall of fire, the Lord’s appearings are around you; there ought to be a special glory of holiness in the midst. That is the position of the righteous, and it furnishes a call to holiness.